Speech recognition applications, such as telephone interactive voice response systems, can be created using graphical programs. Such graphical programs provide tools for use in creating speech recognition grammars. A speech recognition grammar includes words or phrases that a speech recognizer within a speech recognition system will recognize as valid input into the system.
The graphical programs that provide tools for use in creating speech recognition grammars are useful when creating finite grammars, such as when acceptable inputs include, for example, numbers or yes/no answers to questions. However, when the number of acceptable inputs includes larger volumes of possibilities, such as when the acceptable inputs include large amounts of data from databases, these graphical tools are lacking and require error-prone, manual coding. Further, if the data of these grammars is dynamic, modifying the grammar as dictated by changes in the underlying data also requires manual coding.